Pioneer SE-MONITOR5 - Pioneer's high-end closed-back
- Thread starter XERO1
- Start date
There's no escalation, just a friendly exchange of views... on a "touchy" snake-oil-category subject.
My SE-Monitors sounded better very quickly. Whether that was due to being used to the sound or the 30 hours or so I burned them in, I don't know. Either way I'd just play music and within a few days make your judgements, and you can wear them or not wear them. It really doesnt matter if any of it works or not. If you listen to your headphones instead of keeping them on a shelf or locked in some torture chamber of white noise, you're going to have a good time. Unless of course these wont be the right ones for you!
Surely, several days of burn in won’t constitute torture. 
I did notice an increase in the low frequencies after 30-40 hours and planning to call this process done when I reach 100 hours, but was curious about other SE owners’ experience. My main gripe with them is the reduced “reverb” (3-dimensionality or holographic depth) especially in the mid-frequencies and with voices when compared to Beyerdynamic T1.2 and Final Sonorous VI; the sound reproduced by SE is rather flat in comparison. EQ helps but not much.
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PioneerPurist
New Head-Fier
Hi guys, if anyone is interested I'm selling my near-mint SE-5s in original box with all accessories, even including 2 sets of left and right genuine Pioneer service parts pleather earpads. Send me a private message if interested. I'm selling for £699, will ship internationally, and willing to negotiate on price a little bit.
https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds...x-spare-pleather-earpads-genuine-parts.36831/
https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds...x-spare-pleather-earpads-genuine-parts.36831/
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plmon
100+ Head-Fier
Got these recently and just wanted to share my first impressions. I used the velour pads as I found the pleather pads to sound too wonky in the mids. (EDIT: Disregard this, turns out I put on the pads backwards. Compared to the velour pads, they are a bit warmer and a bit more peaky in the treble).
These are an interesting pair of headphones. Build-wise, I have nothing to complain about. These are some of the most solid feeling headphones I have. I love the sleek look and the weight doesn't feel too heavy, it's much less noticeable than an Audeze or the Avantone Planar.
Sound-wise, I find the SM5's great strengths are in its resolving power and lateral imaging.
It is incredibly easy to distinguish the timbre and finer details of an instrument's sound with the SM5. The only other headphones I've heard that are particularly good at that are the Sennheiser HD600 series and the Avantone Planar. But the SM5 is in another league when it comes to just how much of that detail it's able to portray. I can hear the natural echoes from things like woodwind instruments, the distinctive texture of a singer's voice, the subtle variations in tone present in electronic bass. Resolution-wise, these definitely compete with headphones in the $1000 range.
The soundstage of the Pioneers reminds me of the AKG K700 series. It's like a wide ellipse, with the perceived depth being more shallow. It isn't nearly as wide as the AKGs though, but decent for a closed-back. However, it makes up for that by having razor-sharp horizontal imaging whereas the AKGs are more on the blurry side. I would say it even beats Beyerdynamics in that regard. Unfortunately, the shallow depth makes things a bit harder to make out with busy music because it's like the layers are more compressed together.
To better illustrate this, imagine you are sitting in a movie theater. Something like the Avantone Planar, which I find has better layering and more "depth" in its imaging, would let you hear maybe 10 rows x 6 seats wide. The Pioneers are like 5 rows x 15 seats wide. Left-to-right is split into a fine gradation rather than large blobs.
Its weakness though is the tonality and dynamics. The bass is there but the impact just doesn't hit very hard even with EQ. It's like the Aeon Flow or the AKG K700 series in that regard. The tonality is fairly neutral with an analytical edge. But there's a bit of bass bloat to my ears and some unevenness in the treble that dampens some of the highs while making others a bit sharp. And there also seems to be a peak in the upper mids that makes vocals sound somewhat nasally. This tonality is what holds it back from sounding as natural as a Sennheiser or as pleasing as a Hifiman.
That said, I think it's still quite good among closed-backs. I find it uncommon to hear a fairly neutral closed-back, let alone one without weirdness happening in the midrange. The Pioneer's tonality doesn't sound as pleasing as something like the Aeon Flow Closed or even the E-MU Teaks, but it's still one of the better ones out there and my ears get used to its idiosyncrasies pretty quickly.
For me, the best "analytical" closed-back I've heard is the Audeze LCD-XC 2021. IMO, it's still more resolving than the Pioneers and the tonality is a bit more balanced. But the Pioneers aren't too far off and are also way more comfortable to wear. I feel like with a little more refinement to the sound, they would've been excellent alternatives to the LCD-X series for studio use.
Personally, I like using these for orchestral soundtrack music the most. The shallow depth is somewhat mitigated by the larger scale of an orchestra and it's quite immersive to hear all the instruments so distinctly and with so much detail.
These are an interesting pair of headphones. Build-wise, I have nothing to complain about. These are some of the most solid feeling headphones I have. I love the sleek look and the weight doesn't feel too heavy, it's much less noticeable than an Audeze or the Avantone Planar.
Sound-wise, I find the SM5's great strengths are in its resolving power and lateral imaging.
It is incredibly easy to distinguish the timbre and finer details of an instrument's sound with the SM5. The only other headphones I've heard that are particularly good at that are the Sennheiser HD600 series and the Avantone Planar. But the SM5 is in another league when it comes to just how much of that detail it's able to portray. I can hear the natural echoes from things like woodwind instruments, the distinctive texture of a singer's voice, the subtle variations in tone present in electronic bass. Resolution-wise, these definitely compete with headphones in the $1000 range.
The soundstage of the Pioneers reminds me of the AKG K700 series. It's like a wide ellipse, with the perceived depth being more shallow. It isn't nearly as wide as the AKGs though, but decent for a closed-back. However, it makes up for that by having razor-sharp horizontal imaging whereas the AKGs are more on the blurry side. I would say it even beats Beyerdynamics in that regard. Unfortunately, the shallow depth makes things a bit harder to make out with busy music because it's like the layers are more compressed together.
To better illustrate this, imagine you are sitting in a movie theater. Something like the Avantone Planar, which I find has better layering and more "depth" in its imaging, would let you hear maybe 10 rows x 6 seats wide. The Pioneers are like 5 rows x 15 seats wide. Left-to-right is split into a fine gradation rather than large blobs.
Its weakness though is the tonality and dynamics. The bass is there but the impact just doesn't hit very hard even with EQ. It's like the Aeon Flow or the AKG K700 series in that regard. The tonality is fairly neutral with an analytical edge. But there's a bit of bass bloat to my ears and some unevenness in the treble that dampens some of the highs while making others a bit sharp. And there also seems to be a peak in the upper mids that makes vocals sound somewhat nasally. This tonality is what holds it back from sounding as natural as a Sennheiser or as pleasing as a Hifiman.
That said, I think it's still quite good among closed-backs. I find it uncommon to hear a fairly neutral closed-back, let alone one without weirdness happening in the midrange. The Pioneer's tonality doesn't sound as pleasing as something like the Aeon Flow Closed or even the E-MU Teaks, but it's still one of the better ones out there and my ears get used to its idiosyncrasies pretty quickly.
For me, the best "analytical" closed-back I've heard is the Audeze LCD-XC 2021. IMO, it's still more resolving than the Pioneers and the tonality is a bit more balanced. But the Pioneers aren't too far off and are also way more comfortable to wear. I feel like with a little more refinement to the sound, they would've been excellent alternatives to the LCD-X series for studio use.
Personally, I like using these for orchestral soundtrack music the most. The shallow depth is somewhat mitigated by the larger scale of an orchestra and it's quite immersive to hear all the instruments so distinctly and with so much detail.
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I have been using the stock pleather pads to increase the low frequencies, have reduced by 1.5-2.5dB the regions 0.5KHz & 1KHz, and increased by 0.5dB at 4KHz & 125Hz and by 2.5dB at 64Hz & 5dB at 32Hz respectively. The resulting sound has very nice bass and the mids have lost their forward/honky character; it also resulted in better stage depth.
Chris Kaoss
Headphoneus Supremus
Thank you for heading up.
I'll give it a shot when I get my SEM5 back from my lil brother, if that'll ever happen. ^^
Chris Kaoss
Headphoneus Supremus
Thank you for your impressions, plmon.
It's great to know the SEM5 is still able to crap (grap) someone's attention.
Edited the crap.
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Sonic Defender
Headphoneus Supremus
I imagine where it says crap in your post you meant grab. Still it was awesome to read.Thank you for your impressions, plmon.
It's great to know the SEM5 is still able to crap someone's attention.
Chris Kaoss
Headphoneus Supremus
Haha.
Shame on me.
Notice to myself: don't write anything while late on your day. ^^
Do anyone have service guide? How to remove se-monitor5 headband?
I have my Monitors for sale
Lol, that's not what I've asked. Only interested in the Master 1.
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